Fire extinguisher

Fire extinguishers, or extinguishers, are an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, though they are ineffective for out-of-control fires. Typically, fire extinguishers are composed of a hand-held cylindrical pressure vessel containing an agent (such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide) that can be used to extinguish a fire.

Because of safety regulations, public areas or military bases are required to have at least one fire extinguisher on hand in the event of a fire.

During the 2007 Tanker Incident, after stumbling upon a Semtex/infrared sensor trap set up by the Gurlukovich Mercenaries, Solid Snake at Otacon's suggestion shot a nearby fire extinguisher to be able to sight the otherwise invisible sensors.

Behind the scenes

Fire extinguishers first appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and in other games in the Metal Gear series, where they acted as a non-lethal trap by shooting the fire extinguishers to let off an explosion of smoke to deter any pursuers.

Although fire extinguishers themselves cannot be used as an accessible item in the actual game, Metal Gear Solid 2 did have the Coolant spray, which served a similar purpose late in the game. The Trial edition demo for the game did apparently have a fire extinguisher as an actual weapon.

In Metal Gear Acid 2, shooting a fire extinguisher will cause it to explode and release its content, causing some damage and temporarily blinding anyone near it by coating them with the extinguisher's content, victims becoming unable to see enemies and the cards on their hand. A target covered by the extinguisher's content will not be affected by the "burning" status ailment.